LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “…Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails...” (Proverbs 19:20-21, the Holy Bible).

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ABAD’S PROPOSAL RE: VETERANS’ PAY CALLOUS: Callous, and a product of an ingrate mind. That’s how I view the proposal of Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad for the Aquino government to simply write off, and not pay anymore, billions of pesos in unpaid pensions for thousands of aged and ageing military retirees and veterans.

Yes, there is a growing scarcity of government funds, and yes, there is a need to utilize whatever money is available in government coffers for other “more productive” purposes.

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IS THIS THE WAY TO TREAT OUR VETERANS? But, if our veterans and retirees are not paid the pensions that should have been paid to them in previous years, how would they be able to pay the people who lent them money during the times their pensions were not being paid? Surely, these unpaid creditors will no longer lend to veterans and retirees henceforth.

And if their unpaid creditors would no longer be giving them new loans, secured by their pensions, how could our veterans and retirees, who are now too old and too feeble to even move around and work for a living, continue living? Is this the way to treat them? Or, do we want to simply hasten their departure from this world?

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REDUCE PORK BARREL AND INTEL FUNDS: What Abad and the Aquino government should do is to come up with a system whereby pork barrel allocations for Malacanang and other government agencies, and for our lawmakers, are scaled down, and the money saved is set aside for the unpaid and accruing pensions of veterans and retirees.

And then, the intelligence and other discretionary funds of various government officials should be scaled down likewise, for the same purpose. What is more, Abad should endeavor to minimize corruption in government, bring it down from the conceded present rate of 40% of the annual budget. That alone would bring in a lot of money (P1.4 trillion times 40% is a whooping P560 billion)!

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MILITARY MEN MUST NOW CONTRIBUTE TO A PENSION FUND: Abad cannot use as an excuse the fact that military personnel and other uniformed men are not contributing anything to a pension fund---there is some wisdom in this, considering that military men perform a more dangerous job for the entire Filipino nation.

However, it can be explained to them that, considering the present precarious financial and economic condition of the country, there maybe a need for more sacrifices, especially from the military sector whose rank and file members have already sacrificed a lot, and I am sure they will understand if they are made to shell out a few pesos from their monthly salaries for their retirement.

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GOD’S BLESSINGS, PART V: Deuteronomy 28:1-14 of the Bible favors those who listen to God and obey Him, thus: “The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands…”